444 ANNUAL R EG I S T E R, IS09. 



which appears not to have been 

 stated to the treasury, was about 

 190,000/. and it was never so low 

 as 150,000/. in the course of the 

 next 15 months, a balance appa- 

 rently much more than sufficient to 

 allow of a payment of 50,000/. (the 

 sum usually transferred at one 

 time) into the Bank under the act. 

 The commissioners state to your 

 committee, that demands upon 

 them to the amount of not less than 

 about260,000/. were then outstand- 

 ing ; but this sum must obviously 

 comprise the payments which were 

 to be expected in a long succeed- 

 ing period, for all the actual pay- 

 ments of the following 16 months 

 (if a sum of 50,000/. paid to 

 government on the 30th June, 1796, 

 and of 4-0,000/. transferred on 

 the 31st December 1796, to the 

 commissioners, on account of com- 

 mission, and of about 49,000/. paid 

 to captors, which had been previ- 

 ously received from the East India 

 Company for that purpose within 

 the same period, are excepted) 

 amounted to only about 143,000/. 

 according to a statement of the 

 commissioners. These payments 

 are undoubtedly no exact or very 

 sure criterion of the sum which 

 might fairly be considered on the 

 25th February, 1796, as likely to 

 be wanted. They however furnish 

 a strong presumption on the subject, 

 and the circumstanceof the50,000/. 

 just mentioned having been afforded 

 to government, besides 40,000/. to 

 the commissioners, a few months 

 after the 25th February, 1796, 

 without producing a reduction of 

 the balance below, 150,000/. affords 

 additional reason for thinking that 

 there was no sufficient ground for 

 objecting to make a payment into 

 the exchequer as desired. It is 

 further observable, that the com- 



missioners, in their statement on 

 this subject, to your committee, 

 omit to mtntion the sums which in 

 February, 1796, they might ex- 

 pect to receive. The sums ac- 

 tually received in the first fifteen 

 of the above mentioned sixteen 

 months (exclusive of the 49,000/. 

 which were both received from the 

 East India Company, and paid 

 over to captors as already stated) 

 appear by a paper called for by 

 your committee, to have been more 

 than equal to the sum paid in the 

 corresponding period, if the before 

 mentioned payments of 50,000/. 

 to government and 40,000/. to the 

 commissioners are included. It is 

 moreover observable, that a sum 

 of from 86,000/. to 665,000/. 

 (which in conformity to a clause 

 in 35 Geo. 3, c. 80, was gather- 

 ing interest at 4 per cent) lay 

 in the hands of the East India 

 Company from the beginning of 

 March 1796, to March 1798, be- 

 ing the produce of sales made by 

 them from time to time on account 

 of the commissioners, a part of 

 which fund, supposing a proper un- 

 derstanding on this subject to have 

 subsisted between the commission- 

 ers, the government and the East 

 India Company, might have been 

 convertible to the purpose of sup- 

 plying the commissioners with the 

 means of meeting some of the de- 

 mands coming unexpectedly upon 

 them. It is therefore on the whole, 

 presumeable, that at the time of 

 the application in question, a fur- 

 ther augmentation of the large 

 balance already in hand, rather 

 than a diminution of it, was rea- 

 sonably to be expected. 



Your committee cannot contem- 

 plate the magnitude of the balances 

 as they appear in the cash-book of 

 the commitisioncrs, vvithout expres- 



